Durian harvesting, a job that pays nearly $4,000 a month

At 6 a.m. Nguyen Trong Tan, 25, and his team of 13 people arrive at a one-hectare durian farm in Ke Sach District in Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

While others are putting on gloves to prepare for the job, Tan has already climbed up a tree and started tapping fruits.

Holding on to a branch with his right hand, he swiftly cuts the stem of a fruit with a knife with his left. "Catch this," he says, dropping the fruit down to a helper below with a basket.

Within a few minutes he harvested more than 20 Musang King durians, a popular variety originally from Malaysia.

Nguyen Trong Tan sorts durians at a farm in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, in early 2024. Photo by Thanh Binh

Durian is a profitable and lucrative fruit not only for farmers but also workers like Tan and his men.

The workers are paid handsomely. Tan is much sought after by farm owners, and traders to harvest ripe durians, examine them for quality and sort the harvested fruits. The role of durian tappers is very crucial as it helps farm owners avoid losses.

Born in Cai Lay, the land of durians, Tan dreamt of becoming a tapper since he was young. At 18 he accompanied experienced workers in the area to learn from them and gain experience.

Two years ago he formed a team of his own, and they started working in many provinces. Half of the 14-member team are durian tappers while the remaining work as catchers.

A durian tapper earns around VND2 million a day. Tan and his team do not have a fixed working schedule, but they sometimes have a huge workload meaning higher wages. "One time in Dak Lak (a Central Highlands province), our team managed to harvest 30 tons of durians a day," he said.

In a typical month Tan is able to put aside VND50 million after expenses. But the job is not for everyone as it requires great expertise. There are many varieties of durians, each with a distinct appearance. Factors such as fertilizing method and amount of rainfall determine the harvest time.

Tan first asks the farm owner when the fruit set. Some durian varieties can be harvested 90 days after they set, while others require 110-120 days. The next thing he looks for is the outer appearance, including a fruit’s stem, the color of its skin and spines. Fruits with a darker shade and pliable spine tips are considered mature.

But the most important factor is the sound produced when tapping. Tan uses the knife handle to knock on the durian and listens to the sound. Mature durians sound dull and hollow, while immature ones create a solid sound.

Nguyen Cong Thanh, 32, has been harvesting durians for 3 years. He says while it is quite easy to tap and tell if a fruit is ripe or unripe, it is a lot harder to determine the exact level of ripeness.

That is important since fully ripe durians are harder to sell, while fruits that are exported need to be less ripe than those meant for domestic consumption.

"This year working for durian farms growing the Ri6 variety has been very challenging: The sound when tapped suggests perfect ripeness, but the fruits are still unripe when opened," Thanh says.

This is due to lack of irrigation and leaf loss, he explains.

Tappers might have to pay a penalty of up to a month’s salary for errors in judgment since unripe durians can mean significant financial losses for durian traders, and they are required to share the responsibility.

For teams like Tan’s, penalties apply when the ratio of unripe durians exceeds 2% of the total (20 kg per ton). "One time when I was just starting at this job, I had to pay a penalty of VND7 million," Le Thanh Binh, 29, a durian tapper in Tien Giang, says.

Binh made this career switch from driving trucks in 2021. A quick learner with a small build, he advanced to become a tapper after working for just six months as a catcher.

Tan in a durian orchard in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, at the end of 2023. Photo by Cong Thanh

Phan Thi Hong Nhung, owner of a collection center in Tien Giang, says that she paid VND25-30 million a month to employ tappers, but the rate has increased to VND50 million this year.

Nhung has 10 contracted tappers, whose main work is to sort fruits and occasionally visit durian farms.

Recently a team at Tay Nguyen university invented a machine that can determine the ripeness of durians. However, it only works on one variety and is no more precise than a human tapper.

Not surprisingly, most people still trust experienced durian tappers to do the job.

In the past tappers used to work only during harvest season. Now they are in demand all year round because durians are grown throughout the year thanks to new cultivation methods.

Along with that is the increase in durian farming across the country, which has expanded to 131,000 hectares, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the past Tan’s team used to work mainly in Tien Giang and its neighboring provinces, but in the last two years they have started going all over the Mekong Delta, the southeastern and central regions and the Central Highlands.

Looking at ripe fruits, the outcome of a long period of cultivation, and harvesting them often gives tappers a satisfying feeling.

Last year Tan’s team worked on a durian farm in Dak Nong and harvested an estimated 200 tons.

The farm was so big that they had to use Google Maps for navigation, and its owners made use of good cultivation methods that allowed consistent ripening. "They timed the harvest period very well, and we could harvest 20 to 30 fruits per tree," Tan says.

With their good reputation and competence, Tan and his team get a lot of offers for work, providing them with significant incomes. "Traveling to many places and making friends with many people are the wonderful parts of this job, which keeps me moving forward."

Durians harvested by Tan’s team waited to be transported by farm owners to a collection center in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, in early 2024. Photo by Trong Tan

Tan is the team leader despite being the youngest member. Apart from his years of experience, Tan is also able to harvest durians with great precision. Under his leadership, the team hardly ever pays any penalty.

"We often say that Tan has the ability to look right through the fruits, because he is always correct, even in difficult cases," Thanh says.

"Sometimes he can tell the ripeness just by looking at the farm, without needing to tap the fruits."

Before becoming a durian tapper Thanh had been a factory worker. He quit the job to work on his family’s durian farm, which led him to his current job.

"Thirty minutes of durian tapping pays me as much as the daily wage of a factory worker," he says.

Thanh likes the job for the flexible working hours and the friendly teammates he gets to work with.

Some farm and collection center owners offer tappers transportation, accommodation, meals, and sometimes even insurance.

"Sometimes there is a lot of pressure like time constraints and the risk of accidents, but looking back at our past achievements makes me love my job more and more," Thanh adds.

 

 

Durian harvesting, a job that pays nearly ,000 a month

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